Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad acquired Rashid Khan for Rs 4 crore when he went under the hammer after Mohammed Nabi was sold for Rs 30 lakh
While Ben Stokes set the IPL auction on fire with a record price for an overseas player in its nine years of existence, two Afghanistan players took as much attention. Experienced all-rounder Mohammed Nabi and teenaged leg-spinner Rashid Khan became the first set of players from the war-ravaged country to be picked for the most popular T20 league in the world.
Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad acquired Rashid for Rs 4 crore when he went under the hammer after Nabi was sold for Rs 30 lakh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman told DNA from Bengaluru soon after the auction that Rashid and Nabi were the impact players they were looking for to cover all aspects of his side.
Laxman said on the two Afghan buys: "We wanted to have impact players, just like the way Mutafizur Rahman was last year. We felt both Nabi and Rashid are impact players. In whatever little we have seen, we are impressed with both these players. Nabi can also bowl off-spinners. Rashid is an attacking bowler, a wicket-taking player. That is why we went for both these players. There is a myth that only fast bowlers can be attacking bowlers. If you see the list of spinners who did well in T20 cricket, they have had a huge impact. We were very clear we wanted Rashid and we got him."
Keenly awaiting the arrival of the first Afghanistan players ever in IPL, Laxman said: "I am looking forward to them because we have always been impressed with the way Afghanistan played in the opportunities they got and even now in the on-going series (in Zimbabwe). This will encourage a lot of Afghan players in the future. It is not about which country they come from but as long as the quality of the players are good and add value to the franchise, am sure the franchise will look to take them."
The former stylish India middle-order batsman from Hyderabad was pleased with the way the auction went for his team. "Very happy with the auction. We got all the players we wanted. Am sure the players whom we selected will add strength to our team. We have covered all the aspects of the team. We can work on various combinations with our playing 11. We had a very clear plan, we were able to get 100 per cent of the player we got short listed," he said.
He was also confident of his team doing well as defending champions in the IPL. "We are quite confident, and we believe that in this auction, we selected players who will give us best chance to win. Is is up to us to play to our potential. If we do that, we will definitely play well in this IPL as well."
Laxman also said that Stokes was beyond the team's reach. They entered the fray when the bid for the England all-rounder heated up, raising upto Rs 14cr until Rising Pune Supergiants clinched it at Rs 14.50cr.
"We went for Ben. He went beyond us. It is not that we did not go for Ben. Someone like Ben is a match-winner, gives the X factor, is an impact player," Laxman said.
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